Highlights: Mir 17 hosted the first ESA mission aboard Mir, Euromir 94, which ended November 4. Another international milestone was the rendezvous of the Space Shuttle Atlantis on its mission STS-63 with Mir. A new human spaceflight duration record was established by Polyakov with his 438-day stay on the station.

Soyuz-TM 20, which on October 6, 1994, had delivered two members of the Mir Principal Expedition 17 crew, Commander Alexandr Viktorenko and Flight Engineer Yelena Kondakova, and Euromir 94 astronaut Ulf Merbold. They joined Valeri Polyakov, a station resident since the beginning of Principal Expedition 15 in January 1994.

Progress-M 25, a cargo resupply ship which had docked with the complex on November 13, 1994, to deliver water, fuel, food, and materials for repairs, including parts for the CSK-1 materials processing furnace.